'Murica! (233 Viewers)

icemaη

Rab's Husband - The Regista
Moderator
Aug 27, 2008
36,513
So after about 15 months from the time I put money down on a finished apartment (thank you Portuguese bureaucracy and city utility approvals with a Covid backlog), I finally have a deed and keys to a pretty nice new condo in Lisbon.

And because the money is next to free, I took out a mortgage for a portion of it. Just learned that because my new apartment unit has an "A" energy rating, the EIB (European Investment Bank) is knocking an additional 0.1% off on my interest rate. Not much, but I'll take it.

Because if the condo were in Texas, I'd probably be charged an extra 0.1% of interest just for discriminatory harm to the state's fossil fuels business. :pado:
Gotta invite myself to Lisbon now :D
 

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GordoDeCentral

Diez
Moderator
Apr 14, 2005
71,048
So after about 15 months from the time I put money down on a finished apartment (thank you Portuguese bureaucracy and city utility approvals with a Covid backlog), I finally have a deed and keys to a pretty nice new condo in Lisbon.

And because the money is next to free, I took out a mortgage for a portion of it. Just learned that because my new apartment unit has an "A" energy rating, the EIB (European Investment Bank) is knocking an additional 0.1% off on my interest rate. Not much, but I'll take it.

Because if the condo were in Texas, I'd probably be charged an extra 0.1% of interest just for discriminatory harm to the state's fossil fuels business. :pado:

Congrats! Also forza fossil fuels!
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,939
Congrats from across the pond. Despite our disagreements I still hope you fly an Old Glory there on our nations behalf. If nothing else, for me, the most annoying Murican you know
Love you, Hust! :heart:

You might have forgotten that I have a drag-racing police officer brother who calls out abortion as state-sanctioned murder and takes me to the shooting ranges. I appreciate the joust... it's never personal. It's what we all need to learn how to cope with differences more.

That's awesome! Are you planning on moving there full time?
I didn't go back to the US throughout Covid until November last year, so it's been pretty full-time. (I'm going back again to the US for an extended period this November.)

I don't have my citizenship yet, but my papers are on step 4 of 7 in the process. Let's just say I've enjoyed it here more than Cali these days for the chill people, the culture, health care that won't bankrupt me, and being able to go out at night without needing to pack heat.

Gotta invite myself to Lisbon now :D
You know you are always invited! :heart: I still have fond memories of watching Juve with you and your lovely wife and her food (and Sheiky, etc.) at one of your prior places in Bangalore...

Lots of Desis around here. Enough to get you yelled at by a Murican in Poland, but enough to feel familiar regardless of your religious persuasion. (We even have Parsis, though I haven't caught many straight-up Zoroasters.)

Congrats! Also forza fossil fuels!
Thanks! And yeah, Eurosaurus Rex. Though we'll see if we come out a little less scathed ... we're part of the "Iberian Exception". Not only do most of the apartments in Lisbon not have heat, but the EU gave us the finger when Merkel was teat-sucking Gazprom ... telling us we were on our own, because all-nukes-all-the-time France and Macron certainly didn't want more gas pipelines over the Pyrenees. So we get a 1-year reprieve.

Meanwhile, none of our natural gas comes from Russia anyway (and as a result of the French stiff-arm) ... we were forced to acquire it through more expensive LNG (liquified) from the US and Angola and some North African pipelines. Now the pricing makes that decision look a lot cheaper. But who knows for how long.

Oh, and because this is the Murica thread, some face-slapping reality of the poetic basic services here in Portugal. I went to the bank to change my home address with the new purchase. They were serving D02 and I had ticket D03. I waited over an hour for someone to see me. Then the act of changing it took about another 40 minutes. No normal American would believe that's humanly possible. This is where we joke we are the Africa of Europe.

Just changing your home address at the bank took over two hours... it's like buying a new car.
 
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IliveForJuve

Burn this club
Jan 17, 2011
18,959
Love you, Hust! :heart:

You might have forgotten that I have a drag-racing police officer brother who calls out abortion as state-sanctioned murder and takes me to the shooting ranges. I appreciate the joust... it's never personal. It's what we all need to learn how to cope with differences more.



I didn't go back to the US throughout Covid until November last year, so it's been pretty full-time. (I'm going back again to the US for an extended period this November.)

I don't have my citizenship yet, but my papers are on step 4 of 7 in the process. Let's just say I've enjoyed it here more than Cali these days for the chill people, the culture, health care that won't bankrupt me, and being able to go out at night without needing to pack heat.



You know you are always invited! :heart: I still have fond memories of watching Juve with you and your lovely wife and her food (and Sheiky, etc.) at one of your prior places in Bangalore...

Lots of Desis around here. Enough to get you yelled at by a Murican in Poland, but enough to feel familiar regardless of your religious persuasion. (We even have Parsis, though I haven't caught many straight-up Zoroasters.)



Thanks! And yeah, Eurosaurus Rex. Though we'll see if we come out a little less scathed ... we're part of the "Iberian Exception". Not only do most of the apartments in town don't have heat, but the EU gave us the finger when Merkel was teat-sucking Gazprom ... telling us we were on our own, because all-nukes-all-the-time France and Macron certainly didn't want more gas pipelines over the Pyrenees. So we get a 1-year reprieve.

Meanwhile, none of our natural gas comes from Russia anyway (and as a result of the French stiff-arm) ... we were forced to acquire it through more expensive LNG (liquified) from the US and Angola and some North African pipelines. Now the pricing makes that decision look a lot cheaper. But who knows for how long.

Oh, and because this is the Murica thread, some face-slapping reality of the poetic basic services here in Portugal. I went to the bank to change my home address with the new purchase. They were serving D02 and I had ticket D03. I waited over an hour for someone to see me. Then then act of changing it took about another 40 minutes. No normal American would believe that's humanly possible. This is where we joke we are the Africa of Europe.

Just changing your home address at the bank took over two hours... it's like buying a new car.
That's beyond shit lol. Not even in the old country I experienced that.
 

Hust

Senior Member
Hustini
May 29, 2005
93,716
Love you, Hust! :heart:

You might have forgotten that I have a drag-racing police officer brother who calls out abortion as state-sanctioned murder and takes me to the shooting ranges. I appreciate the joust... it's never personal. It's what we all need to learn how to cope with differences more.
Agree - debating can be fun until someone makes it personal or takes it to that level. I like your brother, bring him to Tuz :p
 

alaska

Senior Member
May 25, 2013
1,272
Love you, Hust! :heart:

You might have forgotten that I have a drag-racing police officer brother who calls out abortion as state-sanctioned murder and takes me to the shooting ranges. I appreciate the joust... it's never personal. It's what we all need to learn how to cope with differences more.



I didn't go back to the US throughout Covid until November last year, so it's been pretty full-time. (I'm going back again to the US for an extended period this November.)

I don't have my citizenship yet, but my papers are on step 4 of 7 in the process. Let's just say I've enjoyed it here more than Cali these days for the chill people, the culture, health care that won't bankrupt me, and being able to go out at night without needing to pack heat.



You know you are always invited! :heart: I still have fond memories of watching Juve with you and your lovely wife and her food (and Sheiky, etc.) at one of your prior places in Bangalore...

Lots of Desis around here. Enough to get you yelled at by a Murican in Poland, but enough to feel familiar regardless of your religious persuasion. (We even have Parsis, though I haven't caught many straight-up Zoroasters.)



Thanks! And yeah, Eurosaurus Rex. Though we'll see if we come out a little less scathed ... we're part of the "Iberian Exception". Not only do most of the apartments in Lisbon not have heat, but the EU gave us the finger when Merkel was teat-sucking Gazprom ... telling us we were on our own, because all-nukes-all-the-time France and Macron certainly didn't want more gas pipelines over the Pyrenees. So we get a 1-year reprieve.

Meanwhile, none of our natural gas comes from Russia anyway (and as a result of the French stiff-arm) ... we were forced to acquire it through more expensive LNG (liquified) from the US and Angola and some North African pipelines. Now the pricing makes that decision look a lot cheaper. But who knows for how long.

Oh, and because this is the Murica thread, some face-slapping reality of the poetic basic services here in Portugal. I went to the bank to change my home address with the new purchase. They were serving D02 and I had ticket D03. I waited over an hour for someone to see me. Then the act of changing it took about another 40 minutes. No normal American would believe that's humanly possible. This is where we joke we are the Africa of Europe.

Just changing your home address at the bank took over two hours... it's like buying a new car.
I know nothing of Portugal, but it sounds like it has the bureaucratic incompetence of Southern Europe, but not the efficiency of being able to just slip the clerk some cash and move to the front of the line?
 

.zero

★ ★ ★
Aug 8, 2006
83,435
So after about 15 months from the time I put money down on a finished apartment (thank you Portuguese bureaucracy and city utility approvals with a Covid backlog), I finally have a deed and keys to a pretty nice new condo in Lisbon.

And because the money is next to free, I took out a mortgage for a portion of it. Just learned that because my new apartment unit has an "A" energy rating, the EIB (European Investment Bank) is knocking an additional 0.1% off on my interest rate. Not much, but I'll take it.

Because if the condo were in Texas, I'd probably be charged an extra 0.1% of interest just for discriminatory harm to the state's fossil fuels business. :pado:
Congrats Greggo :beer:
 

X Æ A-12

Senior Member
Contributor
Sep 4, 2006
88,205
Oh, and because this is the Murica thread, some face-slapping reality of the poetic basic services here in Portugal. I went to the bank to change my home address with the new purchase. They were serving D02 and I had ticket D03. I waited over an hour for someone to see me. Then the act of changing it took about another 40 minutes. No normal American would believe that's humanly possible. This is where we joke we are the Africa of Europe.

Just changing your home address at the bank took over two hours... it's like buying a new car.
To be fair, the CA DMV website has insisted for years that my DL #is not in their system so do i even exist?
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,939
I know nothing of Portugal, but it sounds like it has the bureaucratic incompetence of Southern Europe, but not the efficiency of being able to just slip the clerk some cash and move to the front of the line?
Oh, we have that. But the weird thing about Southern vs Northern Europe, is the latter is super-efficient at doing the simple things and making them trivial. But anything with a complication becomes an impossible exception to the system. So sort of like Windows.

Southern Europe can be like using Unix to get your computing done. The simple things are hard, but the nasty things are somehow still possible with enough patience and getting the right 4 people in a room.

As for slipping cash, that's surprisingly not common here. I've heard in Brazil there's always a police officer who will pull you over and "fine" you a cervejinha ... a small beer ... that you have to take him out for as part of your payoff.

I had a friend who was a total Brazilian cop jacker. They pulled him over for slightly muddy license plates/tags that were hard to read. So when the cop suggests a cervejinho instead of a fine, they go to the bar and the guy buys a beer. He then opens the beer and uses it on a rag to wipe his car tags clean and takes off.

Pretty baller.

To be fair, the CA DMV website has insisted for years that my DL #is not in their system so do i even exist?
I am not surprised. You probably heard my story of when I first moved to CA on a Maryland DL? I passed through Nebraska and got a ticket outside Lincoln. And for the first time in my life I opted to become a fugitive, as the cop saw my moving stuff in the back seat, it was August, and he presumed I was a nearby student at U Nebraska. So his ticket gave me a court date. I split town and never showed.

My forwarded mail from Nebraska to Maryland had me on warrant status. But when was the next time I was going to drive through Nebraska?

The interstate collaborations between states in exchanging licenses was less precise back then. I turned my Maryland license in at the DMV, and I was worried they'd learn of my warrant status in NE. But in line in front of me, a woman was arguing with the clerk that she couldn't have had her license suspended 15 years ago because she would have been driving at 6 years old.

I knew then the CA DMV records were too f'ed to catch me.

That vision of loveliness definitely has a healthy relationship with food.

America is just growing its own biofuels. It's called energy independence.

I could heat my New England home for a winter with just one of SavageXFatty's thighs. So keep the crops growing.
 

AFL_ITALIA

MAGISTERIAL
Jun 17, 2011
32,012
Unless something major happens we headed for an ugly diverce imo
You could well be right of course, but the absolute worst case scenario rarely comes true. In my opinion the further we get from the pandemic, the more of a return to "normalcy" we'll see. Notice there's no more large BLM protests or calls to defund the police anything like that despite unarmed people still being killed by the police, but go back to June 2020 and people would have you believe it's the end of the nation.

But then again, if some election deniers win in November then I'll probably be a lot less optimistic :scared:
 

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